Date of Award

5-8-2026

Access Restriction

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctorate in Education

Department

Education

School or College

School of Education

First Advisor

Lauren Casella

Second Advisor

Antonio Felix

Third Advisor

Keisha Chin Goosby

Abstract

In the post-pandemic era, educators in Catholic schools in diverse communities serve as emotional gatekeepers, vital social justice agents who act as the final filter between vulnerable students and a landscape of poverty, immigration fears, and digital disinformation. This study centers the voices of these highly capable educators to investigate the factors that led to their departure from the profession despite a strong vocational commitment. By listening to the stories of eight former teachers through narrative inquiry, the researcher identifies the specific factors that led to the teachers’ departures. The findings reveal that the decision to leave is driven by three primary indicators analyzed through the Four Capitals framework (Mason & Matas, 2015) and Push-Pull-Mooring theory (Grigg, 1977). The first is overwhelming workload, a Structural Capital (Mason & Matas, 2015) deficit where an unsustainable volume of noninstructional tasks takes away from the social justice work that initially called them to the classroom. The second is classroom realities, characterized by a Human Capital (Mason & Matas, 2015) gap where educators felt significantly underprepared for a modern landscape where student engagement, behavior, and emotional regulation have fundamentally changed. Finally, weakened Social Capital (Mason & Matas, 2015) occurs when a failure of institutional support breaks the social and emotional connections that originally anchored these teachers to their school communities. To address this crisis of departure, this study introduces the Novice Teacher Self-Efficacy Framework (NT-SEF) as a diagnostic tool for school leadership. When paired with a Protected Induction Tier and a structured three-year novice teacher support plan, these systemic changes work to safeguard the teacher’s “why.” These interventions are not merely administrative; they are essential social justice acts that ensure those dedicated to our most diverse communities have the support required to thrive rather than just survive.

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